Spurs 104, Golden State 102: Next men up

Pounding the rock. Get over yourself. It’s just basketball. The Spurs have any number of maxims to enforce their blue-collar, no-frills ethos, resulting in a hive mindset unlike any other team in the NBA. So as improbable as Thursday’s 104-102 victory at Golden State might have been, coming as it did without Tony Parker (injured), Tim Duncan (rest) and Manu Ginobili (rest), it shouldn’t be especially shocking.

Tiago Splitter delivered the winner, tipping in Boris Diaw’s miss with 2.1 seconds left before the Spurs (21-5) forced Stephen Curry into an impossible 3-pointer at the buzzer. But as their favorite axiom asserts, it was everything that came before it that made the difference. Down 14 early in the second quarter, the Spurs surged into a two-point lead at the break. It was eight entering the fourth, and they held on despite falling behind twice down the stretch.

Player of the game

Marco Belinelli had proven his worth well before Thursday, leading the NBA in 3-point shooting and fitting seamlessly with the Spurs’ high-IQ reserve unit. Forced to handle a larger role without the Big Three, the Italian sharpshooter delivered with a career-high 28 points on 16 shots, in 29 minutes against the team that drafted him 18th overall in 2007. He scored 17 in the third quarter alone as the Spurs led by as many as nine — a cushion they would need every bit of as Golden State rallied in the fourth.

The turning point

The seeds for the Spurs’ victory were sown in the second quarter, when they finally came to life after sleepwalking through most of the first 15 minutes. They shot just 33 percent with eight turnovers in that span, at which point the Warriors led 34-20. They nearly tripled their output with 33 points over the next nine minutes, however, giving them a 53-51 halftime advantage. Leonard scored 14 of his 21 during the surge before passing the baton to Belinelli.

News, notes and observations

* It appears as if Splitter might have gotten away with basket interference on his game-winning tip-in. You be the judge:

TNT color analyst Reggie Miller was baffled why the officiating crew didn’t verify the bucket via replay. Simple: Per USA Today’s Sean Highkin, replay can only be used to overturn an interference call, not to determine one.

* Per our own Jabari Young, via Elias Sports, the Spurs improved to 4-9 all-time when playing without Duncan, Ginobili and Parker.

* The Spurs got a pair of huge defensive plays from unexpected sources: Mills, drawing a charge on Curry to negate a basket that would have put the Warriors up 96-95 with 4:41 left; and Diaw swooping in to block Curry’s transition layup from behind as the Spurs clung to a 100-99 lead in the final two minutes.

* While Curry (30 points, 15 assists) and David Lee (32 points, 13 rebounds) both went off, Klay Thompson struggled once again against the Spurs, shooting 6 for 18 overall and 1 for 7 on 3s. Dating back to last season’s playoff series, Thompson is averaging 10.8 points on 33.3-percent shooting over the last six meetings. Give credit once again to the hawkish Leonard, who spent most of the evening hounding him.

* Stat of the night, courtesy of Project Spurs’ Quixem Ramirez: Belinelli, Leonard and Mills combined for 69 points on 47 shots, while Curry, Lee and Thompson combined for 75 on 78.

* Tweets of the night:

Wow! What a game! So proud of these guys! Great win in a difficult arena against a tough team. Saturday vs OKC now. #GoSpursGo